Arson attacks on the Berlin Wall: "What a fucking country!"

One day : Mr. Adam, as an unadjusted heavy metal fan, you started playing with the authorities early in the GDR. Now you tell in a book about this rebellion, which resulted in arson attacks on the Berlin Wall. Is it a late revenge on the regime?

Raik Adam: Revenge, I would not call it that. Almost 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is easy to relax a bit.

one day : Why then this comic, from which much anger can be read out on the GDR?

Adam: We want to oppose this miserable rehabilitation of the GDR. Unfortunately, there are many parents who tell their children today: "Of course we were not allowed to do one or the other at that time, but on the whole the GDR was a drunken dictatorship." A graphic novel reaches young people. And we would like to tell them that it was pretty stupid in the GDR for young people like us back then.

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one day : The speech bubbles you have texted and find some drastic words for this attitude to life - such as: "What a fucking country!"

Adam: We wanted to retrieve our original language 30 years later. For this reason I have, for example, refrained from talking about the GDR, because we have always spoken only of the "zone". And yes, "Scheißland" - I'm still signing it today. Maybe even fatter. Because now we know from the Stasi files much more about the crimes of the system than then.

one day : memories can be distorted over time. Is not there a danger that you will later glorify and over-dramatize your rebellion against the state?

Adam: That's exactly what we talked about a lot and often questioned ourselves: was that really so? Do you also see it like that? Was that my choice of words? We looked at a lot of old photos and videos, especially of course the pictures with which we documented our actions against the Berlin Wall. I also requested our Stasi files again. This is how we reconstructed exactly: how did the Stasi assess our actions - and how did we perceive and carry them out? From this interaction we could tell our story very authentically.

One day : The actions included attacks on the Berlin Wall. Since then, as in the night on the 13th of August 1989, a GDR watch tower went up in flames. What did you want to achieve with that?

Adam: A burning watchtower in the middle of Berlin, that was a joke. Such things worked in the West as in the East, and the GDR border guard can not just ignore it. This speaks in the company rum, which will cause a stir in the Stasi. We wanted to build pressure on the system, spread unrest. From the west, in my opinion, there was no pressure. There the wall was completely ignored. But for us it was a symbol. A brutal symbol. I was also on demos and helped fly leaflets over the death strip with balloons. But that did not really help, the leaflets were intercepted, done.

one day : So you decided on a more militant, anarchic strategy.

Adam: Yes, we wanted to damage this wall and everything it stood for. This was not an adventure, but a very concrete aversion to this structure and the political conditions. The East German cadres did not want to know about perestroika.

Comic excerpts: "It's getting hot and uncomfortable!"

Rarely do contemporary witnesses write their own story. Even rarer than graphic novel. Dirk Mecklenbeck, Heiko Bartsch, Raik and Andreas Adam want to show young readers how uncomfortable it was in the now often transfigured GDR - and how they proceeded from the west against the hated wall.

German history in comics: The "Wall Warriors" see themselves as political activists who want to create unrest in the GDR. On the night of June 17, 1989, they throw down a border fence near Berlin-Neukölln with Molotov cocktails.

12 bottles fly, fire in the death strip.

A Border loses his nerve and charges his rapid-fire rifle.

The activists see from afar, as a colleague pushes the gun down the frontier. "This story is absolutely authentic , we did not overdramatize it," says Raik Adam today.

Now it's time to say goodbye!

The next action on the death strip , a few weeks later: fence crack by bolt cutter.

Almost the activists caught a patrol. At the end, there are 13 triangular and one square hole in the fence. "Great art" , cheer the four friends. Meticulously, GDR border guards document the incident.

Only three of them are on 13 August 1989 , the 28th anniversary of the Berlin Wall - attack on a GDR watchtower .

The border guard is warned , soon it will be "bright and uncomfortable". The crew flees .

For the attackers, the wall is a symbol of oppression - and this fanfare is burning .

"The wall must go," cheer the men and flee. They do not know that they are already under surveillance by an IM of the Stasi .

Only three months later , the hated wall really falls. When the friends see Schabowski's later famous press conference on TV, they can hardly believe it - and quickly make their way to the border, which is suddenly no longer.

one day : In the graphic novel you put it this way: "With our attacks we override the routine in the death strip, we annoy, provoke and do not let them rest."

Adam: That meets our ambitions. As late as January 1989, Erich Honecker had said yes and said: "The wall will remain in 50 years and 100 years." That took off our shoes! The second reason for our actions were the first demonstrations at the Nicolaikirche in Leipzig. Now something finally happened. In the East, the revolution was in its infancy. We wanted to help her from the west.

One day : In the drawings you can see Molotov cocktails fly through the night, masked men make deals with bolt cutters on the fences of Berlin border installations. Do not you glorify violence like that?

Adam: No. At that time we were aware of the dangers and do not stylize ourselves as daredevils. Our worries are also in the comic, for example: "I hope things do not get out of hand." I think we succeeded in doing a balancing act. We do not glorify violence, but tell of young people who have positioned themselves against the GDR, albeit with militant means. Not everyone needs to find this way.

One day : You could have endangered border guards.

Adam: We warned them before and shouted: "Attention, it will be light and hot soon!" We did not want to endanger anyone and we had to go for the barricades alone.

one day : Conversely, you expose yourself to great danger.

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Dirk Mecklenbeck, Raik Adam:
death strip

Actions against the Wall in West Berlin 1989 (Graphic Novel)

Ch. Links Verlag; 96 pages; 10,00 Euro.

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Adam: Yes, our attack on the fence on Kiefholzstrasse was absolutely reckless. A Borderman had already put his weapon on us. Maybe he wanted to shoot, but his comrade pushed his gun down. It could have been bad for us. This is not exaggerated in the book, but described in an absolutely authentic way.

One day : The graphic novel ends with neo-Nazis marching in Halle shortly after the fall of the Wall. The last speech bubble is: "We are not the right one on the glue, right?" What is your own answer to that?

Adam: I'm pessimistic. The xenophobia was in the East already very present in GDR times. Vietnamese were mocked as "Fijis", black Africans used to be called "coal" in Halle. That was deeply inhuman. This last question refers to the terrible attacks that followed after the end of the GDR, in Hoyerswerda or Rostock-Lichtenhagen. Unfortunately, a pretty straight line can be drawn from then until today.